Steve Dangle podcast with your host, Steve Dangle, Adam Wild and Jesse Blake.

Just showing Steve a video of Victor E. R. A. T. From the Florida Panthers getting his grind on with one of the fans there. Sounds like things are good in Florida.

Yeah. They're having fun. That's a video. Never seen Carlton quite get in Look at that.

Is he doing a parody of Kodak Black?

No.

Because no, this grinding Adam is showing us his butt to butt.

Yeah, it's very PG. It's PG butt.

Okay. I thought he was recreating Kodak Black's famous, infamous moment in FL Live Arena. No.

I don't know if the Panthers want to parody that.

All you told me was that somebody in Florida was grinding at a Panthers game. That's the first thing that jumps to my mind.

I think that's a fair point. It's weird that the Panthers never bring that up. They never mention it. Why do they never mention it?

It's one of the greatest moments in Panthers history.

It could be. It's a TSN top 10 for sure.

If they go back to the Cup final this year, it's in to drop the ceremonial Puck.

Kodak Kodak, black.

The Panthers actually had a couple of moments last season with just fans in press boxes because who was the golfer? It wasn't Brysian. I wanted to say it was DeSambo, but it wasn't DeSambo. He's leading the Masters, so he's on my mind. But who was the golfer who who had the pylon, and he called Eqblad a pylon? Where did he get a pylon? Golfer Panthers. Pylon golfer. Berk Skepka. Berk Skepka, yeah.

Berkskepka. The fucking traffic cone.

Where did he get this?

What?

I've been to the Leaps press box a bunch of times, and I'm trying to think of all the different steps I would have to go through to get a traffic cone up to those boxes. But I'm also not Brooks Capca.

Yeah.

I wonder how much stuff you're allowed to do just based on your Brooks Capca. Look at that.

He's a Rangers fan, I'm assuming then.

No, he's a Panthers fan. He is a Panthers fan. That's the reason he's so passionate. Steve, yelling at the least and being angry at the least comes from, I love this team so much. Brooks Capca is a huge Panthers fan, and that's why he's there yelling at Ekblad, calling him a pylon.

I thank you for reminding me of that.

He ended up apologizing, and it was all good by the end of it.

No, because we talked about it on the show, and we were like, Oh, maybe they're friends? And then Ekblad spoke on it, and we're like, Oh, they're not friends, actually. And then I think they became friends.

But this is a fan being a fan, and I love that. Yeah.

Not everyone gets such large props, but not everyone has the ability to hold a pilot in an arena and be cool with it. I mean, the best ones are where you're like, Where the hell did you get that? Like the guy with the waffles.

Yeah. Yeah.

Or the guy-That's your Alzheimer.

The Lee fan that was banned for life for throwing toast on the ice because they needed to wake up and smell breakfast when they were really bad. This is 2010, and I I remember at the end of the season, a guy threw toast on the ice, and it was toasted. Oh, yeah. I remember that. And then banned for life. And people were like, Why are you banning it for life? They are bad.

Do you know the leaves were so bad for so long that there are food items gims that were thrown on the ice that I forgot about? Yeah. I thought it was just waffles. And I'm like, Oh, wait. Yeah. There was a toast guy. There was a toast guy. There were a bunch of Jersey guys. Of all the things that fans make fun of the leaves for that get brought up. It's amazing what happens pre Internet 2.0 that people don't remember. There was a game where the leaves had a lead. It was like, I want to say a multi-goal lead. They blew it late. A fan, immediately after the other team tied the game, had a heart attack in the stance. So you know people, they're always tweeting to me, Oh, Steve, something's going to... Oh, his head's going to explode. That happened to a guy. He lived, and I believe they won the game.

That's cool.

But I like that. That's the only reason I'm telling this story. No, it's good. But that is a real thing that happened. You can look it up.

Yeah. Yeah. I didn't expect to start with victory rat, but that was the conversation starter because that's what I saw as soon as Jesse hit the intro button, I was like, wow, that's victory rat, and he's having a good time.

What are you on where you're watching Mascots Grinding?

It's a bleacher report.

Okay. I don't know what search notifications Adam Wilds got set. I don't know where it's just, hey, listen, Friday morning, got to watch my Mascot Grinding videos.

I'm furry, and so are they.

Adam, why?

Just saying. Here's what I really wanted to start the show with, the Shohe O'Tani stuff. I just want to just talk numbers for a second. That's nuts. Itbe Misuhara, who was Shohe O'Tani's interpreter, the numbers in terms of how much money he spent came out, and it's just unbelievable.

Please read these because to me, that's not even the craziest thing that came out.

Well, It's a John Hayman tweet is the craziest tweet that came out, but we'll get to that. Bob Nightengale. About 19,000 bets were placed. The average cost of each bet. Now, I'm not saying that these bets were ever this number, but this is the average cost, $12,800. You do a T.

The average.

So you have a $2 Steve bet. Yeah. Ippei Mitzuhara's average bet.

Ippei Mitsuhara.

There you go. Would be 12,800, almost 13 grand. Total losing Closing bets, 189.2 million. Total winnings, 142.2 million. 40 million net losses, which is unbelievable. He stole more than four times what we originally thought. We thought it was 4 million bucks. Actually, it's 16 million. And apparently, he was able to change the settings. And I don't know how this is possible. Apparently, there's rumors about him calling the bank and pretending to be Shoheya O'Tani. What? And saying, Oh, I need this and I need it wired here, which is crazy, too. I didn't even know you could do that. But yes, $16 million from O'Tani's bank account to pay gambling debts, according to a federal criminal complaint.

What is going on in the United States? We just covered this on a VIP episode. Some lady goes, I need 50,000, and I can't tell you why. Remember that?

Yeah. Or the guy that was like, Create a piece of art, get it insured for 50 grand, and then take that money from the thing. What is going on? Now, I would imagine that a lot of this money was his, but the stolen money from Ohtani's bank account was to cover his losses.

Then came the text.

Oh, from the bookie?

Where the guy, he's texting with someone and he's like, You didn't even steal it. And then what? Ip?

Ip. Ip? Ip, Mizuhara.

Ip, Mizuhara goes, Well, technically, I did steal. He wrote it dead to rights.

Which you got to think, even as a legal bookie, that's to make you feel a little scared.

Oh, yeah. Well, the scariest text I saw was, it sounds like Mizuhara was ducking someone. I don't know who. And then they were like, Hey, how come you're not answering my messages? By the way, our friend, they didn't say Shohe, but it's very obvious that it's Shohe, is out walking his dog. We got eyes on him like the frigging Sopranos. Dude, it's crazy.

It's a crazy story. John John Hayman, because it also came out that there was no evidence seized by the government of any bets on baseball, John Hayman said he showed good restraint, which I think is him trolling.

He has to be kidding.

He must be kidding. It is surprising. It is surprising. I'll steal money from my friend, but I certainly wouldn't want to-I draw the line at, Listen, I'm not Pete Rose, guys. Yeah, I have some scrupules. It's crazy.

Dude, it's a completely wild story.

Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to talk about that. Jesse, when you saw those numbers as somebody who bets from time to time, they must be their eye-watering. The idea, if you only saw the winnings number, you'd be like, Wow, he did pretty well.

Yeah.

Well, gambling anyway like that. It's not the case. It clearly speaks to somebody who has an extreme addiction. 22 bets a day isn't crazy. On an NFL Sunday, if you have a bunch of prop bets and everything, you can get 22 bets in a day. That's not too bad. But doing it every single day and to that amount of money, you keep losing, you keep asking the bookie for more money. It's clearly somebody who has an extreme addiction. Some of this, I look at it and I'm like, Okay, it's awful. We know Mizuhara had all these problems, and he went into this amount of debt. But I'm like, At some point, the guy who handed over the keys to his entire life to this individual needs to be culpable for something here.

Well- Interesting. Why do you say that?

Okay. Yeah. Because they elaborate and I have a counter.

There were absolutely no safety checks on Shoei O'Tani's part, and not even any safety checks by people around him. The way I understood it from all of the reports from the FBI that came out, everything in Shoei O'Tani's life was done through Mizuhara. Not even to the point like just his business side, in terms of just everyday life stuff in America. He did it through him. Even his agent and the agency that Ohtani is signed to didn't have a Japanese interpreter on staff. Nobody in the entire building spoke Japanese. Nobody who ran any of his bank accounts could do anything. No one in his life was there besides Mizuhara if he needed something from Japanese to English or vice versa.

You have one of the biggest athletes on the planet. Get a couple of people who know Japanese.

You have a billion dollars at stake, and you ran everything through one guy.

That opens you up to risk.

Well, now listen, I hear that story, and I'm like, Shohe, I would like to hear answer some questions. But have you ever heard the story of Dane Cook and his half brother?

Yes. I don't know.

His half brother was his agent.

Yes. And this guy stole Billy McStole stole so much money from Dane Cook to the point where I think the story I remember hearing was, I think he was on the Tom Segura podcast. They raided his house. There were frozen containers of tomato sauce in the freezer. When you thawed out the tomato sauce, there were giant plastic bags of cash.

That's awesome.

That's awesome.

That sounds like something out of a show. It does. That sounds like a great baking, a Breaking Bad scene.

Yeah.

That would be Making Bad.

It's so cartoonish that you can't even believe it.

Yeah, that's why it's awesome.

They found it in the walls. And dude, it's crazy. And you would think, how did Dane Cook not know about this? He didn't. He didn't. And a lot of it is like, he'll just never get it.

He doesn't even know where it is. They've been ordered to pay back $12 million. They admitted to stealing. This is what they admitted to stealing. Who? It's his half brother and his sister-in-law. So literally, and it's not a step brother, it's a half brother. So your parent is the same.

And then-Oh, you're talking about the Dane Cook?

Dane Cook thing. Yeah. Sorry. And this happened from the early '90s until 1998. And I don't think they found out about it until 2010. So it's a crazy the... And that's when Dane was on the rise, making the most money he was making.

Yeah, if I remember correct, all of his peak Dane Cook money just stolen. It's gone. And so he had to go on these huge arena tours to make it all up.

That's why he did the Madison Square Garden show and stuff. He had a moment. Dane Cook had a moment.

He absolutely had a moment. You don't have to like him, but a lot of people did for a little while there.

Yeah, absolutely. On of the leaves last night. I don't mind Dane Cook. I don't have a problem.

This is like a VIP episode. Yeah.

On of the leaves last night, which is not like a VIP episode. We do other things. I want to talk about a couple of things. First off, guys, out of 10. How much do you care that this likely puts the Lefs out of Home Ice advantage contention by losing this game? How much do you care out of 10? Give me a number. Two. Jesse.

I'd be a little higher on that because this was entirely in their hands. They owned Home Ice if they simply won the games that they could win. I look at that and I say, Okay, you want to see guys when it's up to you, you are self-determined if you want Home Ice or not, and you want to see them go out and get that. They did not do that in a game they probably should have won. What number do you give it? I'll give it a 6 out of 10, a C plus.

You're not wrong, Jesse. You're not at all. But we agree that they need to rest, guys. Even if they won last night, there's a solid chance they lose the next three games.

But we didn't even get to that opportunity. No, you're right. They blew it in the game where everybody was playing. Nobody He rested, and Matthews was on, and it was great. It was just entirely defensive mislaps.

Yeah, and a bad goal-tending performance. I think we need to be able to say that.

Oh, dude, it was his worst game since coming back.

It's okay to have an off game, but we have to say it. It's funny because I tweeted this last night. I think the last three games New Jersey and Toronto have made, and it's because New Jersey has not been good this year, but Toronto has doubled them up in shots, and Jake Allen has stood on his head. And he wasn't great last night, but he made the saves that he had to make.

What a weird stylistic matchup. Yeah, it's the last three games, and I'm pretty sure Wole played the first, too.

Yes, and it wasn't great.

No. So what the hell is going on? Yeah.

No, I know. And we'll get to the Matthews goals, trust me. But I think as a Lee fan, it's okay if you're upset. It's okay if you don't like when they win or when they lose. If you don't like when they win, I don't know what to tell you.

It's not 2015 anymore.

It's okay, but it's also perspective. And And one of the things that might give you some heart, although it's applying regular season in the playoffs, is that the Leaps have won 24 games on the road this year, which is a franchise record by two. So they've never won this many games on the road. Their home record has not been the greatest this year. I don't know if that matters comes playoff, but at the same time, you go, Okay, you lost the game. I'm with Jesse on one thing. Not only was Home Ice Advantage within your grasp here, winning this game was within your grasp. Yes, I agree. The entire It's a better way. Starting with the fact that the vibes were great as soon as Matthews puts his goal 67 in. Totally. Then even better when he puts goal 68 in.

Just Max Domi, disgusting. What?

And that's who I want to talk about, because I liked what Max Domi did to Nemich, even though he's 23. Listen, you play in the NHL- He's 20. Oh, he's 20. Okay. Listen, Devils fans, I'm not sure if you know this, but you can play in the NHL the time that you're 18. If you're in the NHL, then the NHL rules apply. And if you go after a star of a team, you're probably not used to this from the Lefs. You can't be faulted for that, but that's not going to fly anymore.

Also, what's Curtis McDermott there for?

Exactly. And he was running around last night. He had nobody to go head to head with him.

It was weird. There was no heavyweight to fight him, but then the devils have no middleweight.

Yes.

Again, I'll say it, that's got to be this... Who's softer in the NHL? The National Hockey League? Who's softer?

There's a few teams that are pretty soft.

I can't really think of- Chicago is not that hard. That's not even fair. I think guys will go.

I guess. Not even fair, though.

They're not great, but they'll go.

The Devils are somewhat competitive, right?

I'm trying to think of who will fight on the Sharks.

Again, not fair. Exactly.

Out of teams who are vaguely in playoff contention, they've got to be it, right?

I don't think Vancouver is that hard, but they are skilled. They got guys who will go.

No. Jt Miller is a physical player.

Yeah, they got guys. But is JT Miller... He's not a heavyweight. Is he a middleweight?

Yeah, he'd have a good middleweight bout, I think. Okay.

All right.

Tyler Myers could get into a fight based on his large.

His tall, has big wingspan.

Zdorow.

Yeah. Okay. Zdorow.

Right. That's not fair. They got to be in the conversation of softest team of the league. They went out and they got one of the bigger heavyweights weights, but they still don't have a middle weight. I believe Max Domi, there was a quote that came out of this. He goes, Yeah, whoever it was on the Devils who hit Austin, I didn't like that. That's not him dismissing Simon Nemmich as, Oh, yeah, this player sucks. He's obviously going to be an incredible star in this league. I earnestly don't think he knew or cared who it was. It's just you can't touch Austin. I'm sorry, you can't hate that thought process.

Right. I think that It would be the same as if somebody went after Jack Hughes. Wouldn't you want it? It actually has to be that way. Because the reps are never going to call it, so you have to do that.

For the Home Ice Advantage conversation, 2020, they had Home Ice Advantage.

They lost. The one thing I want to say-Wait, wait.

Oh, sorry. 2021, they had Home Ice Advantage. They lost. 2022, they had Home Ice... Did they have Home Ice Advantage?

Against Tampa the first time? Yeah, they did. Did they?

Yeah, because game seven was in Toronto. That goal that wasn't allowed. And they lost. Last year, they won with Home Ice Advantage and went one and five at home. I don't think it matters.

With the Max Domi conversation, what was so interesting was when The reason I brought up Nemitch and got sidetracked because I do that, I'm sorry, is that when Max Domi was sent off for his 10-minute misconduct, the issue became who's going to play with Matthews? Immediately, of course, as a coach, you put Marner in I don't hate that. I think it looked good, but I don't think it looked electric, the way that Matthews and Domi looked, have been looking lately. It's because they've built that chemistry up over 20 games.

The only thing I think I would have changed there from what Keef did is Marner, Tavares, McMahon, I think is going to be a line, or at very least, Marner is going to play with Tavares. Matthews is sniffing, Nylander sniffing.

Let him sniff.

Let him sniff together. Yeah, put those two out I don't care who the left winger is. Put the two guys who are sniffing for a milestone out together. Nylander was frigging fantastic last night. He just couldn't buy one.

Yeah. In my opinion. What that does is it takes the Bertuzzi Domi Matthews line, which was on fire early in the game, out of the game for 15 minutes of gameplay, right? As much as I'm not going to... I will always support what Max Domi did there. I think it was the right thing to do. It did allow the Devils to come in and do some things and neutralize, I think, the Leaps. They had the opportunities, but I don't think five on five, they looked quite as strong without Domi-Mathieu's Bertuzzi together.

I agree. The penalty kill killed them.

What is with the Leifs penalty? It's bad.

Well, it was getting better. Last night was the first time they allowed three power play goals in a period since October 10th, 2015.

Is that good?

Well, there was the year they finished last on purpose to get Austin. So in a way, we should celebrate that game. I pulled up the rosters from-Give it to me.

Give it to me.

So first of all, it was against the senators. Clark MacArthur and Eric Carlson were on the Ottawa senators at the time. Mark Archibello was a leaf. Brad Boys was a leaf. He had an assist in that game. Arcabeauty. Arcabeauty. The four leaf goal scores were Daniel Winnock, Geoffrey Lupel, Peter Holland, and Tyler Bozac. I'm trying to find the defensemen. Morgan Reilly, who would have been pretty young, Roman Polak, Deon Finaff, Marty Marenshan, Matt Hunwick, and Jake Gardner.

A lot of those guys would be there for the early runs. Dude. Marty Marenshan was there for six more years.

For some reason, I've seen some highlights recently from Matthew's rookie year, and there's all these people on the ice where I was like, there's no way you actually with Austin Matthews. There was such a weird transition period from the old era to the Matthews-Ruster-Kneelander era. There's a preseason game or something where Kneelander and Phil Kessel are on the ice together in leaf uniform? I don't remember that.

Yeah, it's a thing.

I don't remember that at all.

There was a graphic making its way around Twitter, I think, yesterday, and it had the leafs starting lineup from the playoffs in 2018-19. This is when Codri was still on the roster. I had forgotten that not only was... First off, Babs was really mad about them getting Jake Muzzen because he didn't shoot the right way that Babs wanted to. What does he do? He plays him with Nikita Zaitsev.

I completely forgot the overlap.

I had two, completely. It just- Completely forgot. The third line was actually interesting. It was Marlo Codry-Nielander.

Damn, which I think would be a good third line today. Neylander and Codre are so good that it would make up for Marlo being two years retired.

Yeah, exactly. Holy. Yeah. The forward group was stacked. The defense looks thin, real thin. With Matthew's 67th goal last night, he is up to 367 goals total, by the way. But with his 67th goal, he passed Dave Keon. He is now in the top three in goals scored in Maple Leaves history behind Darryl Sittler in goals, scored in Mapleleaves history, behind Darryl Sittler in goals, scored in Mapleleaves history, behind Darryl Sittler in goals, Sendeen. If he stays healthy next year and scores at this rate, it's likely by the end of the season, he's past Matt Sandine. Matt Sandine is at 420. Matthews is at 367. It could be It's going to be close. It's going to be close.

I mean, he's going to pass it long before he turns 30, which is stupid.

But I think it's important if we go through, and I've done this before, games played by all the players in the top five. Matt Sandine played 981 games as a leaf, 420 goals. Darryl Sittler, 844 games, 389. Matthews, I'll hold that at the end. Dave Keon, 1,062. We had 365 goals. And Ron Ellis, 1034, actually, and 332 goals. Matthews has played 559 games. It's in an outrageous, just an outrageous day.

Oh, what a mutant. He's an alien.

So, gentlemen, Yes. I asked you about how much you cared about the Leaps losing last night. I got a two and a six from Steve and from Jesse. Out of 10, how much did it matter to you about goals 67 and 68 getting on the board with three games less on the scale of 10?

Fourteen.

Okay. Jesse? Yeah, because he could wrap it up nice and early now.

Now, when Matthews hit 60 a couple of years ago, he entered the second last game of the season on a Saturday night against Detroit with two goals to go. Tomorrow, three games left in the season, Saturday night against Detroit, two goals to go. Don't let me down, Austin. Come on, buddy. Come on, buddy. Get 70, and then he might not even have to make the road trip to Florida.

Yeah, it'd be nice to see him just finish it off so we don't have to have the debate about resting him or not. Yes. That's the whole thing. Same with Willy. He He's been snake-bitten trying to reach 100 points there. It'd be nice if he could just clean it up and get 100, and we don't have to worry about anything.

That line's playing so well. Oh, the Robertson goal that was disallowed, for God's sake. Well, it's his own fault.

Stay on side.

It is his own fault, but he's Offside by a frigging nose. And yeah, no, I don't know. I hated it. The other guy I just wanted to praise because I don't think I did in the LFR, and this would make three straight games where I think he's like dynamite. Man, earlier in the season, I didn't think Holmberg was an everyday player.

I'm not done with Matthew. I love him. You love him? Yeah. Okay.

But not as much as Matthew's.

I just want to keep on Matthews for one more second because I got another stat to throw at you guys. Matthews in the second period, scored his 274th even-strength goal. He is now the leading even-strength goal score in Toronto Maple Leaves history.

That's so dumb. That's so stupid.

So we got Matthews at 274, Sundeen 273, Keon 269, and Ellisis at 269.

You know what I would like to know, and we couldn't look this set up right now, I think it'd be too hard. When Sundeen played, I want to know what % of league-wide goals were power play goals versus now. It feels like it's easier. It has to be easier to score at five on five now.

Goals are not up this in the NHL. No? No, they're not. Cj was talking about it on the show the other day. He said, We've had crazy individual performances, but goal scoring has either been down or flat.

Here's what producer Drew brought up to me yesterday, and I didn't want to put it in the LFR because I'm going to save it.

For now? You're going to save it for right now?

I'm going to save it for right now. No, it's for when the season's done. Sure. Years ago, I wrote an article about the best era adjusted goal scoring seasons of all time. Wayne Gretzky scored 92. It goes down to 60 something because of how stupidly high that era was. Brett Hall has a couple of years in the '70s. Ovechkin had, I think, the second best era adjusted goal scoring season ever. When he scored 65, it adjusts up to 72. If Matthews finishes with 70 actual goals, will it adjust up or down, and will it end up as potentially the greatest era adjusted goal scoring season ever?

We'll have to find out.

We'll have to find out. I haven't looked into it.

By the way, your blog is still up at Sportsnet.

Yeah, we bring this up every three months.

I know. Yeah, but it doesn't matter. It's still cool.

It's still parts of the article.

No, but I'm just saying.

Jesse, when we left-I'm proud of my work. When we left Kiss, I got a message from their program director. Can you take these videos down? Because they're Kiss-branded, and we don't want them our website anymore. And I was like, Oh, okay. I'm like, Steve's still on Sportsnet.

Don't get me started.

Dude, yeah, don't worry about it. Let's not get on that road. No? No, forget it. Alana. I know you do. I want to start fight. Jesse, I have a question for you, and this is specifically for you.

Okay.

As of right now, Austin Matthews has a couple of 40 goal seasons, a 60 goal season. I love this. At least two 60 goal seasons, right? Because he's got a 60 plus goal season. He might hit 70 by the end of the year. Does that mean Austin Matthews has never had a 50 goal season?

And why are you asking me this?

Because you're difficult. Best of Zay asked it on Twitter, and I just wanted to know why would they ask that.

Because you think a four goal game doesn't count as a hat trick.

Because a hat trick is a three goal game.

Right.

Yes.

And this comes from baseball because if you hit for the cycle, it's first, second, third, and home run. But if you get two seconds, a third, and a home run, that's not hitting for the cycle, even though it's better.

A home run is when you go to home and you don't get a triple along the way. I think when you land on three goals at the end of the game, you get your hat trick. When you land on four, you get something else. I am saying by the definition of the word of hat trick, that is, I ended a game with three goals.

Jesse, is Austin Matthews now, or has he ever been, a 50 goal scorer?

Yeah, he's scored 50 goals before. Yeah, he has.

He's never finished a season with 50 goals.

Do you want to detail? Do you want to get into this definition? I want to get detail. He's never finished the season with 50 goals. So is Austin Matthews a 50 goal scorer? He's never finished a season with 50 goals. No. That's how I would answer the question. He's finished the season in the '60s. He's going to finish in the '70s. He's finished in the '40s. He's never finished in the '50s.

So is Austin Matthews a 50 goal score?

He's never finished in the '50s. Steven.

Yes.

What are your thoughts on Jesse's? I mean, it's difficult to argue. Yeah. He is right. Austin has never finished in the '50s. Now, can we say that a player that finished above 60 goals was a 50 goals scorer?

See, the way you're asking is-Because there are 60 goals. In Austin's first goal, the first game ever in the National Hockey League, he scores four goals, right? Yeah. He does not end with a hat trick, but in In that game, he had three goals. Right. If there was a name for scoring 50 goals in a season, if we called it a kolunkvolf, if we called it a kolunkvolf. Okay, I like that. We said, if you score within the 50s in a season, you get a Kalunk folk. Then Austin Matthews would not have that because he passed it and he got 60. So he would not have that Kalunk folk.

Okay, Jesse, if he hit 70, is it a warm chocolate?

It is. I think that is, yes. If he hits 80, do I have bad friends? I believe the Swedish listeners told us that that's not what- How are you saying?

Yes, they told us that nearly right away.

Then we played it on the show.

Talk some UKID for that information.

I don't know where you got that from. You saw some sign. You're like, All right. Sweden.

I'm going to say this for the rest of my life.

I got it from Sweden. That is not true.

Also, there was a bunch of people drinking garlic beer, and I asked William Laguison about it on Agent Provocator. He's I've never heard of that in my entire life.

No, he said, That might be for the four of theirs.

They're making idiots drink garlic beer then. That's what the Swedish are. They're punking all of us.

There was a hockey writer who had a birthday while over there, and they all went out, and they all drank garlic beer. I think it was Kevin McGransberg.

Okay. Alter was there.

And Zysberger was there, and Alter was there. I believe they all had garlic beer.

Yeah, but it's not a thing Swedish people do.

Well, it's a thing they serve in Sweden to dorky tourists, apparently.

I think there was a lot of that for you while you were over there.

Listen, they're welcome to serve me as many dorky tourist stuff as they want because it was incredible. According to Jonas Siegel, today looks to be the first full practice for Matt Murray. He and Joseph Wall are the two goalies of practice. Sam Sinav is not on the ice. Probably getting a break.

Good for him.

Good for Matt Murray.

That's cool.

Yeah, absolutely.

I just want to throw that out there. I feel like it's becoming more common that guys are going out these injuries like Coutourier and Cain, and who knows if Taves can make it back. But these looks like career-ending injuries. More guys are coming back from them now, and they're sitting out a full year and then working their way back, which is great to see for... Because playing in the National Hockey League, you only get so many years out of it, right? No. A hundred %. Then to have these guys go through these injuries and the way medical, the science has gone now, they can come back from it, and that's great to see. You know what?

None of this would have happened if you just played 70 games.

Yeah, it's true. Are you Martian Bro during this? Yes.

Well, according to New Jersey podcasters, you deserve a slap. They didn't say where. Could be a booty slap, could be a face slap. You don't know. You just don't know.

You don't have enough money to slap this booty.

I did want to talk about, you brought it up earlier, Pontus Holmberg. Tell us about Pontus Holmberg. I know you're excited about this.

Dude, I just love how he's playing.

Is there a better player who has one hand on their stick in the history of the NFL. Oh, my God.

He still drives me a little nuts in that regard. I just feel like he's not able to do a whole hell of a lot when he only has one hand. He scored a goal. Except for that one time where he did. But I would watch him play earlier in the season, and it'd be a little bit of Sheldon Keefe. I'd be like, You're a little vanilla. I don't know what you do. And he's playing center. He should not... At the beginning of the season, if I told you, Oh, yeah, Holmberg is going to be a third-line center heading into the playoffs, I'd be like, Oh, okay. Well, no point turning the TV on in April then because they're going to get murdered. And who knows? It still could happen. I don't think so, though. He's making smart defensive plays. He's creative offensively. He crashes the net. He's willing to take abuse in front of the net. Holy shit, the amount of missed calls last game. There were some playoff ass whistles the second half of that game. Yeah, there was. And Holmberg took a real bad cross check to the back. I don't remember who it I was from, but I was mad about it for approximately 2.4 seconds until I was like, No, that's going to be every play.

Well, Connor Duhre was held up on one of those power play goals that the Devils had, completely held, grabbed his arm held. But that's the playoff.

Well, it's very interesting. Humberg has been so good that when Yarn Crow comes back, you might sit Duhre. Sheldon Keef has praised Matthew Nye for how he's done on the on the fourth line, and he likes how physical he's been. So if he's responsible enough, could you do Nye's Kampf Reeves?

That'd be a not fun line.

Nice camp doer if you really wanted to.

By the way, camp spinarama. My wife and I were both like, Did he just... He waited the goalie out.

How did he do that? He scores once or twice a month, and it's always fucking sick. That was crazy. I love him, except for when I don't. But again, last year, he went through a... I feel like he had a terrible winter. And then the closer we got to the play, I was like, Wait, he's good, right? And then play house coming, Yeah, he's good. Rob Wong and I were tweeting back and forth, I think the way it's going to shake out, leaving the fourth line out of it, because I don't know exactly Exactly how that's going to go. I think it's going to be Bertuzzi Matthews, Domi, McMahon, Tavares Marner, Yarn Croke, Holmberg, Willy, Yarn Croke, helps out defensively with that line and release the Sweeds.Unleashed the Sweeds.The.

Trey Croner Line.

Yes, absolutely.

The Vorm Schokolade Line.

The Vorm Schocolade Line. No, they're not just Vorm. They're hot. H-a-h-t. Hot. And then the fourth line, it's then a conversation between, I don't know. Reeves, Duhre, and Nyees, I guess, and Kampff being the only constant.

And Nyees, I don't know that you're going to take him out.

You're not taking him out.

Got to be careful on the holds, though. He's done a little too much of the holding lately, and he's getting dinged for it.

No, his whistle's terrible, and part of that's his fault. But Dude, those top three lines, that's pretty Dynamite, dude. Yeah. That's pretty good. And if things were to go south, you could swap Nye's and McMahon if you wanted. You could have Nies go up with Tavares and Marner, and McMahon goes down to the fourth line, a role that we know he can do.

Something I do want to throw out there, guys, is that Nielander and Tavares were doing really well together. And ever since they've been split up, Nylander has been a bit snake-bitten, and McMahon has been a bit quiet. And Tavares got two goals last night. He was great. But why is Marner not the guy driving his own mind?

I don't 100% know that he can better than Willy. Okay. Now, there are attributes- And that's not an insult, by the way. It's not. I mean, dude, they're both elite. Someone posted, Over the last three years, here are the top cumulative scores. And Willy and Marner, I think, are both top 15. They're both elites, especially in terms of offense. Marner, I think, can play a little deeper in the lineup, just how he plays defensively. He's maybe a more well-rounded player than Willy. Willy, I think, has better line driving ability. And Marner, the problem with playmakers is you need guys who can finish. And And let's swap Marner and Willy. Now he's playing with... Who was it last night? Robertson. He can finish. Sure can. Robertson and Holmberg, though. That's the line.

Or Yarn Croke.

It's a small line. And Yarn Croke and Holmberg? Okay. I just don't like it nearly as much. You saw how you lit up when I was like, Yarn Croke, Holmberg, Willy. You were like, Oh. And And then you have Marner with Tavares, which we also know works, by the way.

Yes, absolutely.

I like Marner as an elite playmaker. Willy is, too, but I think we can agree Marner's the best in that regard. Marner, the elite playmaker with two dynamic goal scores in Tavares and McMahon. Okay. I just think it's really good. I know what you're getting at.

I just wanted to ask the question. I just thought it was an interesting question. You're wrong. Sorry.

I like being a dick on a Friday.

One point. Are we done with the least? Do you guys have anything else you want to say about the least?

We never really touched on the penalty kill issue because you brought up the penalty kill and then Steve started reading off the 2015 roster. Yeah, that's true. Then we moved on to Matthews. Isn't that the show? Just in casual. I just wanted to throw out there that we talk about penalties going away in the playoffs. They go away in the number of infractions called and not the amount of penalties called. You've talked about this in the past, Steve.

The percentage... Yes, Jesse, thank you for bringing this up. It's the number one strawman gaslighting argument that comes up every spring. Let me nip this in the bud right now before it even frigging starts, okay? People will go, actually, penalties go up in the fart. No. When the playoff start, it's just murder time. Everyone murders everyone. And the penalties go up because the amount of attempted murder goes up significantly and steeply. Also, the playoffs love a good coincidental minor, and they love a good taking two guys out of a Scrum and going, both of you sitting time out, and a good meaningless penalty at the end of the game.

So with all that being said, I think the idea that the leafs suck on the penalty kill, but the playoffs are coming up, so they won't have to be on the penalty kill a whole bunch. That's not a great argument for it's okay that they suck. No. I think it's actually concerning that they are so weak on the penalty. Currently on the season, they sit 25th in League ranking on the penalty kill, 76.9%, which puts them in the vicinity of teams like Columbus, Arizona, San Jose, Montreal, Chicago, who are all around them in the penalty kill Department.

Were any of those playoff teams that you just mentioned?

No. The only one who's right next to them at the bottom, they're 24th in the League in Penalty Kill, Nashville Predators. Really? Yeah, which is very surprising. But if I just list them on. 22 Winnipeg as well, which is also a little surprising.

They're the worst playoff bound team in terms of penalty kill.

Wow.

Yes. In terms of penalty kill, the worst one in the League, except for the New York Islanders who are dead last. Are they actually? But yeah. The Islander? The Islanders are dead last in penalty kill? Dead last in penalty kill. 71.6%. That's wild. What? Let me just read off the bottom. Please do. The bottom teams. We'll go from 21 down. 21, Chicago, 22, Winnipeg, 23, Montreal, 24, Nashville, 25, Toronto, 26, Columbus, 27, Arizona, 28, San Jose, 29, Ottawa, 30, Minnesota, 31, Anaheim, 32, the Islanders. They're a full percentage worse than Anaheim. I'm, Holy. The Islanders are, yeah. Wow. They're bad by a country mile on Palindee kill.

Dude, I can't believe that. At least the Leaps are within arm's reach of basically every team you just mentioned. They could have a hot three games to end the season and pass, potentially get out of the bottom 10 or whatever.

Probably not. Bottom 10 be a little tough. Probably not. They're going to finish somewhere in the 22 to 25 range. The Toronto Maple Leaps will impound the kill, which isn't great. If we wanted to just stay on the island for a little bit, they're on a six-game winning streak, which is going to get them to the playoffs. They're probably going to be the third team in the Metro, which is egregious to the way the NHL sets up their payoff format.

But that's also- Pittsburgh may I'm not going to lose again, though.

We'll see how that goes. But so watch out for the islanders and their sucky penalty kill in the playoffs. But the least being in the territory of you've just listed off the teams right below them, Columbus, Arizona, San Jose, Ottawa.Not great.No.Not great.

Now, tied to the penalty kill conversation is something that they talked about in the interview yesterday. Interview, intermission, yesterday. Elliot Freeman and nick Kipreos both agreed that their top six defensemen for Toronto would be Reilly Labushkin, Benwa McCabe, Edmondson, Lilligran.

I like it. And the main person not there because of this, the penalty kill is T. J. Brody.

Which Justin Borne had on the bottom pair with Edmondson on the right instead of Lilligran. And I didn't hate his argument. We have this idea of Lilligran in our head. The guy who is going to play in Timothée Lilligran's body in a Timothée Lilligran jersey when he returns the lineup is not necessarily going to be the guy who was in the lineup before he got hurt. That guy, the guy from a month ago, I don't even think about it to TJ, or I don't even apologize about it to TJ. I go, Well, you get it. Putting in a potentially still somewhat injured Lilligran over Brody is tough and maybe not even the right decision. But man, I've been singing Brody's praises last week or so. That game last night was terrible. Two completely brainless giveaways.

The Giordano giveaway, too.

Oh, no. Well, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah. Before we moved on from the least, I think we should also talk about geo's probably once game 82 hits. I don't think we see them.

Unless there's injury. Unless. In that case, you could do worse than having Mark Giordano as your seventh or eighth guy. We used to have Martin Marinchen.

Yeah, we sure did. I like the experience Giordano brings, but I don't think he's every day in the playoffs, ideally.

No. The one thing I want to say- But that was never a question, though.

When I saw him make that giveaway, I'm like, Well, we know that's not going to happen.

Tj Brodie's best games with the Lefs were the games after he was scratched this year.

So scratch him for the three remaining games.

Well, maybe he needs a breather reset. I can get that. I have real concerns about this player, and I don't doubt that TJ Brodie is going to be back in form with whoever he plays with next year because he's a UFA. Maybe not to the level that he was the past three years because he's on the other side of 30. But this is a player in the NHL, no question. Probably a top four on a lot of teams. But we have to do, at this point, at game 79 or 80, wherever we're at, what have you done for me lately?

He's not even the best left-handed, right-side playing defenseman the Leaps have.

Which is?

Jake McKabe. He's terrible. If he can play on the left, if there's an opportunity to have him on the left, great. I will mention that both of his worst plays from last night were on the left side of the ice. But he can't play there, man.

He can't play there. Maddie, can you bring up the geo clip here? Mark. Mark Diora, coming out from behind around the back of the net. Straight into the skates. New Jersey devil players pressuring the buck. There is a Leifs player right at the boards. That's what made me so upset about this play. It's so easy. At the top there, you see the feet of the Leaps player sitting there waiting to receive the pass, and you see a New Jersey Devils player right at the face-off dot waiting to receive the pass if it goes up the middle of the ice. And geo looked at that situation and said, I'm going to pass it right to the Devils player, right to the middle of the ice. And it turned into a goal, and it's 2-2.

You know how we I talked about.Oh.

My God. I think it's even worse.

It's even worse. Sometimes plays are worse when you play them out. Oh, there's the puck.

Oh my God.

We have a freeze frame, and it makes it look tape to tape. Like But Sammie's not even-Dude, look at there's two. Look at Sammie. Sammie's standing up. Sam is not even engaged.

No, because the puck is supposed to go up the board.

No, he had a horrible game, but the two, the Brodie giveaway and the geo giveaway. What's Sammie supposed to do?100.

Times out of 400, the The huck goes up the boards.

Dude, okay, the other day we were talking about Cory Perry yelling at Evander Kane for not making the simple play. That was in the offensive zone, at least. This is right next to your goalie, man. What Gee, who is this even going to?

I don't know.

I think it's whoever's up at the blue line and they're hoping to... This was the cut? But unless they're moving pretty quick, we can't tell from the still. This pass is going to blow by them. Dude, it's a horrible decision.

It's one of the worst things I've seen recently.

I would chirp my teammate for the rest of the night if they did this in hot.Oh, man.Or E-A-S-H-L.

Oh, man. I can't even imagine.

If this was Ian Tullet, what are you saying? It's a million % Ian Tullet.

He's made that past a thousand.

What are you saying on the mic right now?

I'd say, well, I'd say, Ian, first of all, you're playing the wrong side of the ice again. Second of all, you're He's passing up to the left boards, which means you're going to Mike Stevens. Don't do that. He's not our Puck carrier. He's our Finisher and penalty taker. Ian, what are you... I mean, geo, what are you doing?

It's so bad. These are the lapses where we look back on the Montreal series and we say, How do you make that turnover? We look back on the pick-play and we're like, How do you call that? If this happened in the playoff, this is an all-time moment that we look back on forever and we can't to have this stuff. It's game 79, was it? You can't. It's done.

Yeah, well, I mean, both teams were very unserious about this hockey game. Yeah.

Let's be honest. I just don't want it in game 83.

I want to go Let me go back to just the power play or the penalty kill part because you ran through the stats. We talked about the defense. I have a problem, and I've said this for a couple of weeks now with where their forwards are positioned on the penalty kill. The next time they're on a penalty kill, watch how deep leaf forwards are in the zone. They do not have time, and they do this five on five as well. They do not have time to gap up on the guy who is high in the zone, be it a defenseman or a forward. It really doesn't matter. And so essentially, teams can pass the park along the blue line and get set up with impunity. And you look at who is skating for the leaves on the penalty kill right now. Now, I understand that they lost a little bit of a step with Yarn Croke not being there, Marner being out, hurt them, but don't ask them about the injury. Kompf, Duhre. Kompf is not the fastest skater. Duhre is a bit of a water bug. Kompf is all right. But Kompf is always positioned well.

Does he have explosive speed? No. Eh. Holmberg-mcman. Okay? It's probably still not ideal.

But it's a collection of their worst forwards.

First of all, how dare you?

Matthews plays a good PK.

He plays a PK.

He's one of the better defensive centers five on five this Yes, that doesn't make him a great penalty killer.I think he actually is very good.They're.

Not mutually excused.

I think he's a good PKer.

I think he's fine, but it's hard to look at any of them and go, You're a great penalty killer. Sure.

So what I ask is, Marner's back. Maybe they're trying to limit his minutes, and he sometimes does take the PK. But my point is, Yarn Croke and Marner are coming back.

That'll help. It's usually Camp Marner.

But their deployment is what's bothering me. Their position on the ice, you You've got skaters that are not explosive speedy guys, and you are expecting them to gap up on a defenseman in a split second. When you watch teams that play the Leaps power play really well, and the Leaps power play has been anemic lately, that's also an area of concern. What they do is they pressure the guy who's high. If they've got, let's say it's-That's Florida. If it's Marner or it's Reilly. Florida did it to them all.

Florida killed the Leaps with that.

Killed the Leaps. Because what the Leaps do is they're too slow in zone entries and getting set up on power play. Because other teams let them do it. Whereas the Florida Panthers don't let you do that.

I think what the theory is, is we're going to try to cut off those cross-slot passes. We're going to do our best to clog the a lot and be jerks in front of the net and clear rebounds and stuff like that. If they pass the buck to the D-man and he gets it wide, at least it'll be on a bad angle. But whoever the leaves are playing in the first round, probably Florida, should probably study what New Jersey has done with Timo Meyer the last few games because he ate them up. He ate them up, man. It was bad.

It was bad. I think they got to really look at that. Also, I know that this game didn't matter, but I hope beyond hope that you or Dan O' Brody are not a defensive pair in the playoffs because they were the number one penalty kill pair.

We're at least a couple of injuries away from that. Speaking of injuries, Joel Edmondson, were you at all worried when he blocked that shot and looked sad?

I'm not that worried. He said he would have played through the other one, so I'm not that worried. I think they're just like, You know what, Joe?

Just sit. I wish someone did more videos about... You don't have to do specific hockey injuries because that's medical information and you don't want to guess everything. But here I am, I'm going to guess. When guys block shots on the laces, there's this nerve. I forgot what it's, pronial? Pronial? Starts with a P. For me, when it happened to me with a far softer shot, it just feels like your leg fall asleep.

All right, today, I have the Steve Dango podcast. Steve Degle comparing himself to NHL.

And by the way, we're a full-face cage.

Yeah, but- No, I'm not.

We're not scared. No, it's just because you don't want to spend $10,000 on your face.

Do the comments under that Instagram clip were psychotic. Hilarious. Hilarious.

This is why we don't read the comments.

I'm joking, Steve.

Well, I don't want to play.

Jesse, do you think he's a little defensive about it?

What happened with your foot when the pocket hit it?

No, it's a nerve thing, right? So it's not... If he breaks a bone, yeah, he's going to have a hard time playing through that. If it's a bruise or whatever, yeah, it's going to be a little tender. Nerves are funny. You can be fine within a minute. I think hockey- And he was right back out there.

I think you're very right about- I know. You need medical professionals to explain sports injuries. I would love that type of programming. And I think hockey needs more of the... Instead of just reacting to the game and that stuff, I'd love to see more people do Frank Harado clips where he talks strategy. I'd love to see that and the medical side of it. I know Adam hates it, but I'd love more equipment talk. The other parts of the game, the actual parts that the guys who are on the ice care the most about. When you're going to the rink every day, you're thinking about being healthy, thinking about what you got to do in terms of the coaches strategy and that stuff. I love that more hockey content like that.

It's just my favorite. I don't remember who the YouTuber was or a doctor, but there was a UFC fight where a fighter got kicked in the leg, and his leg, it wasn't broken. It just stopped working. The person who kicked this fighter in the leg shut their leg off.

That makes me squirm.

Yeah, but the vast majority of viewers were like, What happened? If you really wanted to put your conspiracy hat on, you could be like, He threw the fight. What It's not going to happen. But there's an injury you can get called a foot drop that I'd never heard of. It's basically if you get kicked in this exact perfect spot, you hit a nerve, and it just temporarily shuts the damn leg off, from the knee down.

Bam.

Dude, it's crazy. It's crazy. I want more information like that because the human body is fascinating, and I just feel like the average person doesn't know enough about it.

No.

Okay, so guys, here's the deal. Tomorrow is a big day. As of this recording, it is April 12th. April 13th is a big day.

It's your birthday.

It is. But even bigger than that- Happy birthday, Adam. He had his earlier this week. Julian and Drew had theirs. And now Adam Day. Get real movement. Tomorrow is National Hockey Card Day, and we're going to talk about the rarest rookie card. Now, I can't tell you anything about it because it launches April 13th. That's how rare. It's a great day. But I can't tell you much more than this. We all know that rare rookie cards can be extremely valuable. Steve, you had a few, and you've sold off a few a little too early, Alexander Obechkin.

Yeah, a little too early, yes.

But do you know what the rarest rookie card of all is? What is that? You'll find out on the Steve Dangle podcast next week. The Get Real movement, by the way, is a-You're not going to tell us? No, I can't. I actually can't. You son of a girl. I'm not allowed to tell you.

You son of a girl.

It's called a tease, baby.

Boo on your birthday?

It's a good tease. The Get Real Movement, a Canadian nonprofit focused on battling 2SLGBTQ+. Discrimination, Racism, and Bullying is going to be launching something special in honor of it. So Monday, April 15th, we'll tell you more.

We-myself included.

We recorded one of the best agent provocateurs we've ever recorded this morning. And it is sometimes when you do a show, sometimes it's personality dependent, and sometimes it's news dependent. I don't know. I think people haven't accepted where we're at with the coyote situation, but this is one of the biggest stories of the last 10 years. The ancillary information around it is so difficult to synthesize and bring in an and understand that it was great to have Alan talk about things that... For instance, did you know that the sale is not... If it goes through, it would be next week. Did you know that the sale is not directly from Morello to the Ryan Smith Group?

Yes.

Yes. And the reason I know this is because of the Chris Johnston show. So I know I'm a silly goose about the coyote story. Sdpn is not a silly goose about the coyote story. The Chris Johnston show has it covered, and Agent Provocateur does as well.

And there's a lot of tweets. First off, Alan in the episode finally spells out what was the reason. There is one thing, and I'm not going to blow it, that happened this year that if it hadn't have happened, and it was a public thing, and it happened in Toronto, because center of the universe, if this thing had not happened in Toronto, we would likely be seeing the coyotes at Mullet next So when that episode comes out, it'll come out this afternoon, and it's probably out by the time you're listening to this. Alan actually talks about that. He talks about, too.

During the leaf coyotes game?

No, I'm not going to tell you. Oh, you son of a- No, I'm not going to make it. I want you to listen to it. It happened in Toronto. It's a really fascinating look at... One of my questions was, how do the players actually feel about this? Are they excited? Are they uncomfortable? Do Do trade protections? How does that work? Basically, anybody that tells you that the trade protection things has been worked out, it hasn't. That is still to be negotiated. That stinks. Let's say you live in Scottsdale, and it's a great place to live. Why wouldn't you want to live in Scottsdale? Arizona is amazing. Now you own a house, and you got to move. Who's paying for that?

I was looking at the coyotes, just to add to what you're talking about. Their whole decor needs to be resigned, but it's mostly RFAs. I was expecting to look at their roster, and most guys were on expiring deals. That's not the case. A lot of those guys are stuck. They're stuck in their deal, and they're going to have to follow the coyotes wherever they end up.

That's right.

Now- And those are people with families, man.

There's a lot of incredible information. And also, I asked Alan about the Smith Entertainment Group as well. What do we think about them? What are they going to do? Because it's not like the coyotes are walking into a perfect situation in Salt Lake. There is going to be abstracted view, 13,000 max capacity for a hockey rink, but there's- Still not great. It's better. It's 8,000 more than 5,000. It's a lot better. But I think that the long term strategy there is interesting because obviously, not only are we moving the team to Utah, and they will get a new arena, we'll get into that, but there is a right that Miurello is likely to hold where he can, quote, reactivate the franchise within five years. So Arizona now becomes, and CJ has been saying this for years, becomes the most likely expansion franchise in the NHL as soon as they move.

They literally just need a place to play that makes sense. That's right.

Houston is already up there as well, and Atlanta, obviously, has two very interested groups.

One of the things CJ said on the show, and you should listen to the whole thing, is the building in Glendale is fine. It's fine. It's just that it's in freaking Glendale. It's just far away from their fan base. I don't know, do you want to drive an hour, hour and a half from wherever you're at, or do you want to not do that and just sit at home? It's an easy choice for most people.

Something we did not talk about on the show, but I think you guys would find interesting, is Frank Cervales said earlier this season, that coyotes were not paying their hotel bills, and hotels around the league banded together and demanded the coyotes pay for their hotel stays up front with a certified check.

What?

I have heard the same, and I can tell you, one of the things I've heard throughout the season about the Coyotes with this hotel room issue that I've known about is that the had to step in.

No way. What? And cover the bill?

They had to force them to pay.

Dude. This is why- I don't I don't know what the reasoning is for not paying the bill, but the reality is that this is a thing that happened.

It's widely known throughout the NHL that it happened. And it follows up a tweet that I think will make a lot more sense. People took this tweet as offensive to Arizona Hockey, and it shouldn't be. Andy Strickland, who's known from the... Well, Kam and Strick podcast. He said, The problem in Arizona is the ownership and business management group have fractured too many relationships in the market. No one appears to be interested in helping them, and visiting teams are done playing in a youth hockey auditorium. Andy's right, especially on the ownership side with fractured relationships. So this creates an issue because when you look at it like a very basic thing, like not paying your hotel room bills, it's a small thing. At the end of the day, it's small potatoes when we're talking about billions of dollars. But it's a big thing when you talk about reputation. And so if the NHL is really, and we still don't know that this is going to happen, we're about 90% of the way there. If the NHL is going to do this and give Miurela the rights back to reactivate the franchise by 2030 or whatever it's going to be, we have to take this into consideration.

They were not paying basic bills. They didn't pay the tax bill in Hela, I think. No, Remember they didn't pay the tax bill?

Yeah, Mike Stevens had that article.

He broke that three years ago. Two or three years. Now we know that they weren't paying their hotel room bills. I'm sure there are other bills. You start to extrapolate, are there other bills that are outstanding? And so when you hear that as a business, even if the hotel stay is $20,000 and you know that this company is worth billions or hundreds of millions, you start to think, why would I get into bigger business with you if you can't do the small business right? And that is going to be a hitch in the gitty up for Arizona going forward. And I think that is something that the Bettman and the League have really got to pay attention to because they've been so successful with the the Vegas and the Seattle expansion groups, this is going to be one of those where they go back and you go back with this group who's known for these things, you could be setting yourself back. I don't know. I don't know that it won't be different next time, but you do have to raise your eyebrows and have a little concern with that.

At what point do we have the conversation? Listen, I know the Canadian media and just Canadians in general. Listen, I know Canadian Canadians can be very gatekeepy about hockey, and it's unfair, and it's not productive, and it's not helpful. But a lot of Canadians and Canadian media have been made out to be the bad guy with a lot of this coyote stuff. At what point do we all just point the finger and say coyote's ownership completely sold snake oil by the gallon to their own Their own fan base, their own fans.

Who will not react well to you saying that, by the way.

I don't give a shit. It's the truth. It's the truth. I have not made a single phone call to any of my Illuminati friends saying, Fuck over the Arizona coyotes.

All right? So you admit it?

Yeah, I admit it.

You are a member.

Dude, it's this owner, and they keep basically shit posting from their official Twitter account, and we're staying, and they're posting what is essentially propaganda. Hey, we're doing this, and we're doing that. And we're talking hours later, not days, not weeks, hours after posting another community college fucking application video. Oh, they're going. They're moving, potentially, or there's a very good chance. And then they're having to post their little frigging British Petroleum South Park. Sorry. We're sorry. We know this sucks for you. Dude, they lied to their fans. So there's a reality. I don't think it's going to end up this way. I don't think it should end up this way. I hope it doesn't end up this way. Hockey is going to work in Arizona. Hockey works in Arizona.

Matthew Nies and Austin Matthews. Hockey works in Arizona. If you're fine, if the NHL doesn't work there. Yeah. Well, So far, so far.

Now, the team goes back and it's in an arena that's in a place that makes sense. There are going to be fans who are like, You know what? Fuck you anyway. Because you lied to me. You lied to me. You got me to ra-ra and do this and do that and stick up for you here and vote here and do this and do that. And the whole time, The whole time you were just going to fuck off to Utah? You stink. The owners did wrong by the fans. They played them for foolish, and they should be ashamed of themselves for that. That's not how you treat your paying customers, and it's definitely not how you bring in new ones. They lied to them. Forget Canada, forget any other hockey market, forget any of the gatekeepers of the sport. They lied to their own fans, and that's wrong.

Do you feel cool in your sunglasses these days?

Yes.

Those are not your sunglasses, Steve. Those are hands over your eyes. Do you feel cool now that it's warming up and the sun is out more? You're getting your vitamin D. Jessie, how about you? Because I can't get a standard answer out of Steve.

No, I feel great. Now, why? In my shady rate. That's right. They're my favorite sunglasses that I own.

Steve's doing his shady steves. They're not as cool as Shady Rays, and they don't come with five-star ratings by over 300,000 people or crystal clear optics, or the fact that if they take a hit or you lose them, Shady Rays will replace them.

You know what? I was wearing them over the weekend because I went out golfing for the first time this season, and I wore them for the majority of the round. Usually, I don't like wearing sunglasses when I'm golfing because I'm like, I need my eyes to see it. But I just got them. They're polarized, and I see the ball fine. I play golf well, and I had them on. It was You feel good about it?

Did you shoot well, though?

I did. I had a good round.

It made you better. We got Shady Rays when we were in the floor ball tournament with John Boy Media, and I liked mine so much that I purchased another pair.

If you get two pairs right now, two or more pairs, and you use the code SDP, you're going to get 50% off. Steve didn't get that. You will, though. Go to shadyrays. Com and use the code SDP for 50% off, two or more pairs of polarized sunglasses. That's that situation. Let's talk about something good. Let's talk about Sydney Crosby. Gentlemen.

Well, okay. Well, let's be careful with the word good. Sorry, Detroit.

Sydney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat Detroit in overtime 6-5 yesterday in a just unbelievable classic game.

Eric Carlson just pimp that freaking slap shot.

It was crazy. It was crazy. Now we've got one point separating these teams for the final wild card spot. Pittsburgh, 86. Washington, 85. Detroit, 85. Philadelphia, 85. But they've played a game more than Detroit, Washington or Pittsburgh.

There's still a world where a team gets into the playouts with fewer than 90 points.

Yeah. And the Washington Capitals lost to the Buffalo Sabers last night.

That's killer.

There was a whole line brawl, too. Did you see Tate Thompson? No idea. Oh, yeah. It was a whole thing. It was a big fight.

It was great. I hate when shit happens on nights where the leaves play because I go straight from the game to the LFR and I missed them.

Oh, yeah, it was great. But Detroit-Pittsberg was a classic, unbelievable game. And obviously, I want to I'm not going to talk about the Sydney Crosby thing here. Just let me pull it up, make sure I get it right.

This is the trick play?

Sorry, this is Sarah Volley. One day after hitting 1,000 assists and grabbing sole possession of 10th on the all-time list, adjusted hockey went through career step by step. They're talking about him being like Mount Rushmore great. Like, probably up there, according to adjusted hockey anyway, the best four players of all time are as follows.

Is this era adjusted?

Era adjusted.

Here, Jesse, can you bring up the article?

No, I'm just... Era adjusted. Gretsky, Lemieux, Crosby, Jagr.

Holy shit. Jagr at 1900 points.

Yeah. And so the other guys on the outside looking in, if you look at Irreadjusted, and again, there's a whole bunch of minutiae that they get into. But how Ovechkin, Esposido, and McDavid are there?

E-rate adjusted what?

Okay, so here's what... I'm going to pull it up here.

It's tricky to understand.

It is really tricky to understand. And so, listen, remember, this is just one person's opinion. There's a gigantic article on it on Daily Face-off. You want to check it out. But Paul Beduti, Adjusted Hockey on Twitter for Daily Face-off. The article is called, After Two Decades of Dominance, Where Does Sydney Crosby Rank Among the NHL's Greatest Players? And the Adjusted Hockey said that. I thought it was an interesting I don't want to get into the minutiae of how they came up with it.

You don't want to read the whole article. It's on Daily Face Off. But my thinking was, can our heads wrap around Crosby being the second best player of all time? Yet. Mine can. We're not there yet. We're not there yet, but it's part of the conversation that we had on, I think it was last show, Wednesday. There are lots of guys who have won more cups than Crosby. Crosby has three, and he could get four. Never know. But right now, he has three. It matters that he has three cups in a league entirely made up of 30 teams or more. It matters. That doesn't diminish anything. Any of those Habs legends did, Leifs legends, Gordie Howe. It doesn't diminish any of that, but it should amplify what Crosby did. The record for most Cups with one team since we hit 30 is three. And he's part of that group that's tied, right? It's Crosby, Malkin, Littang, Taves, Cain, Keith Seabrook. It's a really select group. It's a really select group of guys. So in terms of a generation, literally a generation. We throw that word out too flippantly, literally a generation. In terms of winning championships, he's the greatest.

He has 12 individual trophies. He's going to end up actual top, I think at least seven. He's already top 10, could finish as high as top five. You could absolutely argue he's the second best player ever. Now, you got to look at I think Jogger gets lost because of who he played with for so long. That dude won scoring title after scoring title after scoring title. There was a ridiculous stat. It was something from 1979 through 1996 or something like that. The scoring title was only won by three different guys. It was Gretzky, Lemieux, or Jogger. It's stupid. So you shouldn't diminish Jogger, but We're finally at a place where we have enough information, where the hype for Sydney Crosby as a kid wasn't overdone in the slightest. This is one of the greatest players of all time. This summer, I asked a number of high up people in hockey who their Mount Rushmore was, and I couldn't believe how many people had Crosby on it. I couldn't believe. And I had to look into it and I'm like, holy shit, they're right.

Jesse, are you ready to wrap your head around Crosby on the Mount Rushmore top four?

Yeah, I don't think it's a difficult thing to grasp that Crosby is good.

Yeah, agreed.

No, we're not talking good.

When you consider- We're not talking good. When you consider greatest of all time, obviously, Gretsky, obviously, Lemu.

Radek Dvorak was good.

Bobby Or.

Gordie Howe.

Gordie Howe. Babe Die.

Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah, Babe Die.

What are your thoughts? Do you feel like, are we there?

Yeah, I think we've been there. The thing about Crosby, what he's pushing right now is the longevity factor about how long can you sustain this. I think that's the next level of greatness because he has his peak. His peak the highest. He's going to be up there with everybody. He's going to be up there with everybody. Now that he's doing it into his later years, we're getting to the territory of what we see across other sports where it's like, okay, LeBron has been doing this for 22 years. It's insane. This is a little absurd that he's still top 10 in the league at his age. Tom braided has been winning. He won a seventh championship, and he's 32. He's 42. How does this keep going? Crosby, we're reaching the point we're like, holy shit, Crosby is 38? Crosby is going to be 40? And he's still one of the best players in the league, and he's in a heart trophy conversation. That's the next level when you start beating age. And he's there right now, and we're looking at him and we're like, How are you doing this? And you're beating Father Time, which is supposed to be undefeated.

So I think easily, if he's not your top five of greatest NHL players of all time, he should be there right now. And then now it's about climbing where he's going to be in that Mount Rushmore.

Now, I want to throw this out there to something that you said. He's going to end up being five in scoring. A lot of Penguins fans pointed out we never truly saw his peak.

Yeah, because his best season ever. He got a concussion.

If you go and look at whatever his... Can you go and look? I think it was 11, 12. You'll Well, no. He didn't play very many games. He didn't even have that many goals, if I remember correct. But he was good for three points a night. It was insane.

Yeah, 11, 12 was the 22-game played, eight goals, 29 assist season. And then 12, 13 was 36 games played, 15 goals, 41 assists, 56 points in 36 games.

And that might sound like, oh, what? Mcdavid and Kutrav and McKinnon all do that. Dude, no one was doing this. No one was doing this in 2011 or 2012. No one was close. And it was cut off for like a year. It was like a year, and then he came back, and then he left. In his comeback game, by the way, he put up four points.

He was For ever, for forever. He put up four points. It's a very good argument that the peak of Sidney Crosby's career was 2011 through 2013, where he barely played over half a season.

How about this stat? So he's going to end up top five. I keep saying He's going to end up. He's going to end up. He's already a top five all-time NHL playoff scorer. He has over 200 playoff points. 200 A hundred playoff points.

What's the list of top playoff points of all time?

Good question. Actually, I looked it up. The top goal scores since Crosby and Ovechkin's rookie year in the NHL. Crosby and Ovechkin are two and three. Number one is Joe Pavelski. That dude is one of the most underrated people in the world.

Playoff points all time. Gretsky, 382, Messier, 295. Five.

No one else had. Gretske had almost 400. No one else had over three.

Jari Curry, 233. Glenn Anderson, 214. Jogger, 201. Crosby, 201. So he's tied for fifth place. He's going to pass Jogger this season if they sneak it in to the play house there.Penguins went around.Possibly also past Glenn Anderson. Yeah.

If penguins went around this year or even lose in seven, he might get up to fourth.

Yeah, if he's two points a game.

He's an alien. He's really good. I'm looking at this list. If you were to combine regular season and playoff, Curry is not ahead of him in regular season scoring. Wow. Anderson is not ahead of him in playoff scoring. It's only Gretzky, Messier, and Jogger. So just off the top of my head, he's already a top five all-time scorer. No, Iserman is still ahead of him, but he's going to end up passing Iserman. And this is something I remember I wrote about with Sportsnet. This was a different article. In 2016, I was like, Hey, guys, he might pass frigging Iserman. Iserman's sixth, I think. Lemus seventh, he's sixth. I could do a segment on this every show for 10 minutes. Just the greatness of Cydney Crosby.

Well, I think first take does LeBron greatness every show. Great. I'll do Great. He knows jiu-jitsu.

We learned that last night with Ben Chirac.

I want to mention a couple of things. Sens and Devil's Twitter got into a tizy after Mike Rupp yesterday got on the air and said, Boy, Katie Kachuk would sure look good with the New Jersey Devils because you said it earlier, bit soft. They got a heavyweight now, but they could use a power forward. I thought Timo Meyer was going to be more of that guy, but he's not really that type of player. He He's a little bit more like that. He can withstand.

He doesn't really dull.

So Senator's fans rightly pointed out, we're not trading him. He's not up for sale. I know. Now, I wondered, Mike's pretty connected.

That's where that came from.

Yeah, it was from the NHL Network.

Sometimes I'll see someone talk about a stupid take, and I'm like, Was that us?

I don't think it's a stupid take. No, I don't either. Maybe the senators don't pick up the phone. But if we're talking about archetypes, yes, that fits the doubles. Can you see the world, guys? Wait, what did he say? He basically said he would be a perfect fit.

He's right.

Do you think- Mike Rupp is right. Do you think there's a world where the senators look at their roster and Katie Kachuk next season isn't on it?

Is there a world- Next season?

No, no. Not a shot. Not a shot in the world.

You would resell your franchise. Yeah, that's what I think, right? No, no, no. That's ridiculous.

I just wanted to ask the question. And one more thing before we go to press conference. Iceletix. I don't know if you follow them, but they talk about... His YouTube channel is really, really well-produced. They get all the leaks, right? Yeah, they get all the Jersey leaks. I wanted to go and watch the video about fanatics because unlike most people, Iceletix is surprisingly positive about the change to fanatics. Now, you can't be faulted for not being.

Base fans are all over it.

Yes. They are all Well, it's because you can see right through. Now, what he goes into in the video, and Jesse mentioned this on the show, and it's been mentioned a million times, which is, Fanatics is merely producing what Nike told them to do. Nike said, Here are the specifications, make this in your factory. The factory is in the United States, and it used to belong to... I forget it, but the fanatics bought it up and didn't change anything. It's a Nike design produced in a fanatics facility to Nike specifications. Okay. Okay? So that's number one. Number two, one of the things that people got really ticked off about, and I had forgotten about this, when Adidas took over about four years ago, was there was no authentic NHL Jersey available anymore. You couldn't buy that. So there was some leaks the other day about jerseys going up to as much as $425 a American, which is over 500 Canadian.

Shit.

That jersey and that level of jersey has not been available for half of a decade. The reason for that is if you're a jersey collector, you already know this. That is the authentic, we would put this on the ice jersey. Yes. That has not been available for you to purchase unless you buy a game-used jersey in the Adidas zone.

Because a lot of fans of jerseys and uniforms and collectors, they didn't see the value in buying that when if you just spend a couple hundred dollars more, you get an auction, you get the actual game worn one instead of just buying one that's just their uniform off the shelf.

That's why it went away. That's right, because they weren't selling them.

You'd rather just buy the game worn one. You spend the $800 instead of the 600.

And Fanatics is going to start producing those, and you'll be able to buy them this year. That's like fight strap included. Everything's stitched, everything. Then you'll be able to have the same option, which is the top line, Adidas version right now, which we have, like our Justin Bieber jerseys. They're really well done, and they're stitched, and they all look good, but they're not authentic jerseys. They're just jerseys.

You guys got me mine, right?

I got you yours, yeah. Yeah. I was wearing it last time. I love it. It's a great jersey. Then you got that. Then you'll have the the lower grade $150 jersey, which is more to fit sizes, and it's more iron on and less stitching. But for a lot of people, that works because I remember when you used to get a jersey, it was stitched. If you got a stain on it, you wrecked this beautiful jersey. Whereas these ones are a little bit more like, it's like an expensive hoodie. If I stain it, I'm not happy about it. I do want to get the stain out, but I can beat it up a little bit.

It's to wear. How many of you own a $150 hoodie?

Not many. I don't. But there are expensive hoodies that are $150. Of course, there are. My point is, You're not as worried. You're not going to put an authentic jersey on when you're going to go play road hockey. What I thought it was really interesting about this is he's actually bullish on the fanatics takeover of the NHL. Well, specifically for the authentic jersey reason. Now, Jesse, you raise a really good point about just buying the game used jerseys. Would you buy an authentic Jersey? I'm assuming that you'd probably want to get it autograffed eventually, or would you just buy the game worn? For you, price differential, and then I want to go to Steve on this one.

Let's say- I would just go game worn.

You go game worn? Because it's between 800 and a thousand, depending on the player. It could be even more.

Which I'm not doing because I don't have that money.

But if you did, all things being equal.

I would just go to the higher. I would just go to the game worn as opposed to the one that's not game worn, but the same thing.

At what point is it cheaper to buy a game worn jersey from Curtis from Alberta's house than real sports It's. Ca because he has them all? His basement's incredible. Every time I see his videos, I'm like, holy shit, where did you get all that?

Yeah, it's crazy. I think Jesse makes a good point. I initially was like, oh, the authentic jersey is only 500 bucks Canadian or whatever. Only 500 bucks. If you're a collector, whatever. But you're right. If you're going to go stupid-If you're in that market, I don't think it makes sense to half-ass it.

You might as well just get the jersey.

The Leifs equipment sale, I've told this before, but it used to be a treasure trove for this. And then, unfortunately, the Lefs got smart because guys would go to that frigging equipment sale, not for the memorabilia. They're This one guy is like, Oh, yeah, I bought Mikhel Grotowski skates. And it was $800, I think. But he has $800 skates. They're not $800 because Mikhel Grotowski wore them. They're $800 because $800. These are NHL-quality skate. Yes. They used to sell game-use sticks for like, $30.

I know. Now they auction them.

It sucks. I got a Tim Brent for $75. But the stick, it's an Easton NHL quality. It's like a $250 stick. And they realized, wait a sec, we're not even selling these for cost.

Yeah. And now-Now they're collectibles.

Well, have you seen what they sell in the now?

No, I have no idea what they sell.

The Busted Sticks, they take the shaft and they make them into spatulas and barbecue stuff and tables and chairs.

And what are they worth?

They're not cheap.

I've talked about this before, but the gloves I use to play hockey are Frederick Gaultier's gloves, hockey gloves, because they're large and they fit my hands and they're pro-stock. They're pro-level gear. And I got it for a reasonable amount for new gloves.

And what's crazy is you have better hands than Freddy Goche did.

He does. He fed me about a month ago.

Sorry, that's not fair to Freddy.

Frederick Goche is one of the biggest players to ever play for the Toronto Mapleies, and you're like, I'm going to buy his equipment because it's the only thing that fits me.

My pants are leaf stock pants as well because I need the extra length because I'm too tall. So I had to get the pro because they don't make consumer gear that long. So it has to be custom made for an NHL player who's that tall. And the stick I use is Radim Zahornas stick. Oh, I forgot about that. It's from when he was on Calgary for that little short stand. Was it Calgary? I forget. Anyways. It was on the leaves? He was on the leafs? He was on the leafs, but it's not from his time on the leaves. Oh, okay. Because I need the extra stuff on the end, but I need it made as one thing. I don't want to stick the little butter in like when you do in your kidney. Oh, yeah. I bought Zahornas stick, and it just cost the price of a new stick, but it's a pro stick. Yeah. I don't know. There's so much NHL equipment out there that it's getting deals on... You can get a lot of great deals on pro quality stuff.

Just not leaf stuff. You're never going to get a deal on leaf stuff.

No, the leaf stuff sucks. Yeah, it's not from his days of the leaves.

Someone got me a... I forgot. It's a beer opener, but It's with the shaft of a hockey stick. Oh, that's cool. If you read the shaft, it says R. Mcdonald. No. It's a Ryan McDonald game used hockey stick that I guess broke probably during a game in Toronto. There's a company, I think they're out of Whitby. Wow. And they just make- That's cool. They just make stuff out of equipment.

One quick note that broke a few minutes ago. Mark Stone has been cleared to practice for the Vegas Golden Nights, and the internet is reacting as you would.

Hey, It's not the last game. You all have to swallow your words.

I do want to throw out there that he is noncontact, and you can't fake a lacerated spleen, people. You can't fake a lacerated spleen.

That's a potentially career-threatening injury.

Is he going to play in the playoffs?

Yeah. Maddie, if you bring up this picture of Radim Zahorna, that's the exact stalk of stick I have. From this batch of sticks from his time with the flames, that's the stick I have.

That's potentially the exact stick that you own.

Am I the only one that notices that in that picture, his number is 67?

Oh, Rattam, you son of a gun.

And then he played for the least.

But he's 6'5, two something, a similar-ish build to me, so I got a stick.

There's such a small percentage of the league that is that tall and shoots left. Yeah.

I have to go after that specific guy and get a stick.

How did you... Did you buy that off a site or did you buy that off our friend?

No. I don't know. Pro Stock Hockey, Pro Hockey Stock. I forget how it is. That site. That's cool. There's a couple of different ones that do the exact same thing where they clean up NHL equipment, then they resell it. But yeah, that's where I Whoever had that idea to make that into a business is a very smart person.

Oh, yeah. That's really smart.

Well, dude, they're so expensive and they break all the frigging... They break off empty netters, Zack Benson learned. Yeah. I know a guy who he repairs Pro Stock sticks. So he's a righty, but he was playing with a Pro Stock Victor Headman stick. Victor Headman is a lefty.

So he was able to- He put a right-handed blade on a Victor Headman stick.

Yeah, It's really cool.

He's super talented, just retrofitting, just equipment knowledge. Would he be a good interview?

He might be. I'll ask him.

We should do that in the summer.

He's done some framing for Lefs. We're not allowed to tell the stories and what they had him frame and stuff, but he's worked with MLSC and then framing some things for them.

Well, it's because he's good at it. If MLSC is hiring you, you're probably good at it.

He brought in a... He showed me. I tweeted out a picture. He brought in Ryan O'Reilly stick. And I got to tweet the freaky blade that he has with the weird little on the end of it.

It's a good idea, Adam. Yeah, it might be a good summer content.

Yeah, I'd love to. Because the thing is that obviously when the hockey season Peter is away, we're still here. So I'd love to... And it's fun to get deep in the weeds and some of that stuff when there isn't games to talk about.

Shout out Pro Stock Hockey. That's where I got the stick from. There you go. They do great stuff over there. Canadian company, too.

Oh, then definitely support This guy's got a Rattums a Hornet stick.

I have a Nikita Gusev stick.

Should we do a press conference?

Let's do it. The Presser SDP.

The Steve Dangle Press Conference. That was a good stretch. You feel good?

I feel great.

If you remember the last episode when we talked about how Steve was stuck in infinity and he couldn't leave until he scored a goal in an NHL.

Oh, God, I got so many messages about that.

I didn't get any.

We had one follow-up on our Discord server that I thought was very interesting. If somebody's out there and wants to give it a shot, I think it'd be fun. John says, not necessarily a question, but after listening to the press conference from last episode, I think you guys should put it to the test in NHL 24. Create the lowest overall player possible and make a build that most accurately represents Steve, and then put him on the lease in place of Max Domi, and simulate seasons. Because that's where we put Steve. And simulate seasons until he gets his first goal.

No. So here's the thing. You could create the worst possible player in NHL, and it still would be exponentially better than I am compared to NHL player. You could create the worst possible build, and it would still probably be an SPHL player, which is a crazily good hockey game.

The lowest level you can get to in the NHL video game is, I believe, a 48 overall, and you are not a 48 overall.

I'm not even... I don't think I'm a three.

You're like a three.

Would he be a one?

I It might be a one. I think two. You said three. Adam says one.

I think if any of us are over one, it would be generous. That's probably correct.

Adam, you're over one.

I don't know. I don't think so. I don't know. We said, Labushkin is far closer to Gretsky than I am to Labushkin, right?

Yeah, that was my last episode.

That is true. And by the way, somebody did say, Lewis on my Instagram, literally 15 minutes ago said, I have to agree with you on Steve being stuck in his infinity hockey game. I think if he gets first-line minutes and power play time, which Domi does, he has to either bang one in or it goes off him at least once in the first 100 games.

First hundred games?

Remember, I told you, it's going to take a hundred times.

Wade Bilak went fucking like-Not a first-liner, not first power play. That's fair.

I I think you grossly are underestimating things by saying 100 games. I don't know where you're getting that from. You're nuts.

No, you're not good. All right.

One person agrees with me.

Do, Riley Shea went like 81 games without scoring.

Fourth-line player.

Oh, Adam.

It doesn't help him, though. You being on the power plate doesn't help you, Steve.

All Steve needs to do. He does not. All Steve needs to do in this situation is stand in front of the net and it bangs off his shin pad and goes in. That's what I'm talking about.

Just to get in front of the net, he's got to-I'd die. You have to be on side. The amount of the play going from one zone to the next, you can't keep up with that amount of speed.

I'm trying to think of how quickly and easily Ben Sherratt would snap my vertebrae and how many of them would break at the same time.

It's One cross check and you're standing in there, you're done.

Forget it. Dude, I got lightly rear-ended on the DVP six years ago, and I still feel it.

You think you can play an NHL game?

That man driving a van permanently fucked my neck up. And Ben Schirrod, I think, would murder me.

That's why the way I think this has to play out in infinity is you play 20,000 games. And because of the laws of how this is working, each time, we'll give you the ability to gain skills and we'll let you become a better athlete and all that stuff over time. So that's when you eventually score a goal.

We have to, by the way, if you'll notice our old studio in Adam's basement and this one, Adam is on my right. And part of the reason for that is it's harder for me to look to my left. With Adam, I just lean and I look at him. With Jessie, I have to turn my whole body because my neck is fucked.

Why is that? Because your neck is fucked.

Because I got lightly rear-ended in In slow-paced traffic.

This guy with his fucked neck that can't do podcasting is going to score a goal in 100 games, Adam.Not.

A shot.In.

100 games.100 games.

Old broke neck over here is going to do it.Not a shot.

Listen, I'd put a $12,800 bet on that. Okay, from memory, what's his name? Ippei Mitzuhara.

Let's go.

Good for you. That's because Jesse scolded me.

Yeah, I should get the people's names right. This last thing we'll do, this is from a Twitter account called Oh My Spark. Oh My Spark just asked this simple question, literally, what goes on here? What they tweeted out is a picture of the map of North America and where all the four major North American sports league have their teams. One thing that all four league share in common is that there is an area that covers North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. That is completely empty and devoid of a pro sports team. Here's the NHL map, here is the NBA map, here is the NFL map, and here is the Major League Base app. I want to present this to Adam and Steve Dangle What goes on here in this part of America?

University sports.

It's great that you ask. Yes, Newt, University sports. That's it. I have spent a lot of time in Montana and Idaho, and I will tell you that Montana, when I crossed the border from the foothills of Alberta, which is right at the Montana-Alberta border, and went in. They don't even have a fence along the border. It's just a bunch of cut-down trees. So if you wanted to, if you're like, I'm going to sneak into America, you could.

You just hop over a log?

Yeah, literally. I don't recommend you being out there in the woods because it's actually super dangerous.

Wasn't someone who got caught recently and they called themselves in? They're like, No, it sucks out here. Take me to prison.

Yes. But the guy at the border, I'll never forget it. He's like, Welcome. Or nobody said, Hi, you all. Welcome to the land of milk and honey at the Montana border. It was supposed to be like- Was it Dawn Cherry? No, he was just a Westerner. The fuck?

Why are those the two things? Who came up with that?

The guy was a little bit older.

I know, but- But I thought he was a nice guy. Two best things in the world. Milk, honey.

This is off the rails.

That's what we got. Milk, honey. You don't need nothing else.

I'll tell you, Montana and Idaho is some of the most beautiful country you'll ever see. But a couple of things working against it for billionaires to invest. First off, landlocked.

Is the governor.

Number Number two, not the greatest weather. That's the same for Canada in that area as well. Although they are growing and the land in there is worth a lot, especially if you're into skiing and things like that. Would highly recommend you visit Idaho and Montana, both in the dead of winter and in the height of summer because there's funny.

There's a canyon.

I will ride for those two states. I've never been to Wyoming, Nebraska, or the Dakotas, but Montana, Idaho, beautiful.

What about the canyon where you could just dump bodies with impunity? Sorry, there's a lot of plot holes in yellow. Is there really? Oh, yeah.

The That's the train station.

The train station.

That's right.

The number one trend amongst boomers. Talk about taking someone to the train station, which is to say, murder someone. Right. Yes. And push them off a cliff. Yeah, just push them right out. No, you kill them first, and then you push them on through. Right, of course. Come on, you're not an animal.

Steve, of these six states, which one would you like to visit the most?

All right, we got Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota. Had to divide that up, huh? Nebraska and Wyoming. I'm going to say Montana. Why is that? Because there's a restaurant there that sells ribs, and it's called Montana's, and everyone there loves it.

That's a Canadian chain.

Is it actually?

A Montana's? Yeah.

I did not know that.

I had no idea. Boston Pizza, Canadian chain.

Yeah. Montana's isn't a restaurant in Montana that they brought over here.

No, I know.

Can you imagine that? Hey, you want to go to Toronto's?

What do you mean Roma's Pizza is not from... Anyway. I don't know. Montana.

Say something nice about each state, and then we'll sign off.

Oh, Idaho.

Each state?

Yeah, you got six of them. Just say so.

I think every state.

You know what? You'll never be starch deficient in Idaho. I can guarantee that. Wyoming, It's more like, why not Omen? Why not visit there? Because they have beautiful rocks. Nebraska is a place with several cities, none of which I can name. South Dakota is great for when you want to drive to Minnesota, and North Dakota is great for when you want to drive to Regina, which I recommend. Montana, John Dutton's house, his daughter will stab you, and that's all of them.

I think you did a disservice to them.

I'm sure I already heard it. I don't know anything about those places. It's true. It's not that they're bad. It's that I don't know things.

That's fair.

For anybody, not from here, we do have a restaurant chain in Canada called Montana's. The headquarters is in Vawn, Ontario. I didn't know that. It's owned by Kelsie's. It's like a subsidiary of Kelsies, and that thing. It started like a long time ago.

Who owns Montana's? I always love their Recipe Unlimited. They own the Keg, they own Kelsey's, Harvey's. There you go.

Do you understand that's like there being in an American chain called La Valle's? And all they sell is Poutine. I had no idea that happened.

You thought it was a place from Montana?

No, I didn't think it was from Montana, but I thought it had something to do with it. I didn't know it was just cosplaying Montana.

It sold you on the ribs, though, didn't it?

It's pretty good.

The Steve Dangle podcast.

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